Men
I am hereby casting Jeremy Abbott in the Jeff Buttle role, Patrick Chan as Brian Joubert, whichever French guy you want as Johnny Weir, and a Japanese skater to Zayak himself out of contention (Dai, 2008; Nobu, seemingly every year). I am saying this to amuse myself, not because I see much of a chance of this outcome coming to be.

I must amend my previous post to note that there is also a strong possibility of a Czech guy finishing 4th (2007, 2009 - Verner; 2010 & 11 - Brezina).

Buttercup: I think Abbott really does have a chance to take this title in Nice. I think a clean, quadless SP from Abbott is very competitive with a Chan SP that features a bobble or two. That would set up a nice showdown between Abbott and Chan in the LP, where Chan will miss one quad, fall on the 3A, and trip up on his 3Lz-1L-3S combo. Abbott wins, and Hanyu and Fernandez duke it out for the bronze because Takahashi's jumps go all wacky, Kozuka still can't find his mojo, and the judges give Gachinski the SS marks that he deserves (low ones). The Czech boys will be unable to hold it together, and the hometown French boys won't be able to stand the pressure. And seriously: the Matrix? AGAIN?